Pak EC rejects Saeed’s MML’s plea to register as political party

Pakistan’s Election Commission today rejected an application by the Milli Muslim League (MML), the political face of Hafiz Saeed, to register it as a political party just weeks before national polls.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was asked by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to review its decision of last year through which it rejected MML’s registration bid.

A four-member bench of the commission, chaired by its Sindh member Abdul Ghaffar Soomro, today decided against allowing the MML to be registered as a political party.

In its short order, the bench said that the decision had been taken in light of observations of the Ministry of Interior which had expressed its reservations because of the party’s links with the banned JuD leader Saeed.

The interior ministry had opposed enlisting of the MML as a political party, arguing that it is an offshoot of the banned JuD.

The MML, however, denied that it had any links with the JuD or that its chief, Saifuddin Khalid, had relations with Saeed.

It said that former ruling Pakistan Muslims League-Nawaz and its leadership was behind rejection of application by ECP.